Oh no, she knows the building codes very well. She uses the reference library as a back up when some client argues about it ("What do you mean moving that wall would create an exit code violation? What kind of company do you work for?!?!?"...). Clients have no clue.
They save all their drawings in PDF format as well. Makes it easier to pull down and print for meetings.
She used to have a Blackberry, but they kept having email troubles with it.
Yeah a few years ago there was a rash of email issues with the service, haven't had a repeat thankfuly since then, but can understand what her company switched away back then but would encourage them that it's been resolved if they have any desire to return to them.
I grew up in a house with two workaholic architects (my mother is a project leader specializing in I believe what they still call class 1A occupation (hospitals, universities, etc.) and my father is a Landscape Arch. and inherited his buisness from the man who founded Valley Crest landscape maint. (i think they're still the largest maint.. company in the state) and who recieved license #8 when the state started issueing them eons ago.) and thus had a good understanding of codes and ordnances and probabley why I fell back on a CAD degree after repeated failures in convincing them to help put me through aircraft mechanic trade schools, but that's another story. Clients are always a fun discussion at the dinner table, code compliances or other.
In the final stages of construction at UCLA for their new Ronald Regan MC they opted to upgrade a _major_ piece of radiology equipment but were having a difficult time understanding why the instalation add-service cost was so steep. Critical items they were having a very hard time comprehending, such as the building almost being completed at the time and there being no entry or access large enough to bring in the magnets (this included some hallways to reach the equipment's destination in the center of the building too), the demolition/disposal/reinstalation of the lead/radiation-shielding for the room holding the equipment as one of the room's walls needed to be taken out then rebuilt for the instalation and pluss all the radiation-shielded utilities that were in the way of the new machine. At the time my mother was recovering from colon cancer and this major add-service ontop of others was demanding a visit to the site almost twice a day, so she worked it out with her boss and the construction manager to have me run around the site top to bottom as a gopher and representative for her and her office in the last weeks of the construction and was honestly one of the funnest job stints I've had.
And yup, PDF is the standard for issues and record... how many people here in the AH community can pullup a drawing as a PDF view it and print it properly compared to those of us versed well enough in the language of CAD-monkey and autodesk to do the same.
